Dover 200 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Dish Network Ford Fusion – (QUALIFIED 8th, RACE WINNER) CARL, TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY. “It was unbelievable. Pierre Kuettel and all the guys at the Dish Network Ford Fusion were fast. There were times in the race it was so good, I thought all we could do is screw this up. And then we had that final pit stop and I thought there we did – we screwed it up. Just a small slip up and that’s how competitive it is in the Busch series, we just had a real small slip up on pit road and we went back there, then it got really nerve racking. PK and I were both in the same boat thinking you can’t lose a race with a car that good; it would really make Jack Roush mad. It worked out; it was great. My hat is off to Matt Kenseth and as I said it out there, he’s unbelievable to be able to hold with 40 lap older tires and race us that hard. I mean I had him sideways at least twice and he just kept on digging. It was an awesome race to win.”

PIERRE KUETTEL – Crew Chief - No. 60 – TELL US ABOUT THE VIEW FROM THE BOX. “It was pretty scary on that last stop. Like Carl said, we had a little hiccup on the right rear there and came out to fourth, I think it was. I wasn’t really worried about it because how fast as those times were that we were looking at lap after lap, that he could get there. What worried me was that we’d have a bunch of cautions there at the end and we wouldn’t make those positions up. We needed some green flag laps and we’re glad they [NASCAR] red flagged it, because that was the right thing to do for the fans. And we were able to run green and make the thing go.”

CARL EDWARDS (CONTINUED) – After that pit stop, I heard you tell the crew that everything was going to be ok, but it didn’t sound like you were too confident. “I’ll tell you one thing that is great with this crew and my Office Depot crew is that we have a deal – we’re all in it together. Once the race starts, if the jackman jacks the car in the wrong pit stall behind us and totally misses our car or something, we’re not going to get down on each other; we’re in this together. So sometimes it’s really hard. I’m sure it’s hard on them when I run into stuff for them to say ‘Carl, you’re the man, don’t worry about it’ and it’s hard for me when they mess up a pit stop, but we really are all in this together. I’ve learned that that makes it a lot better and makes it easier to move on and to learn. Then people don’t feel like they’re left out there on an island when they make a mistake.”

PEOPLE WERE SAYING IN HERE EARLIER THAT THERE PROBABLY ISN’T ANYTHING AT THE DOVER AIR FORCE BASE THAT COULD CATCH YOU. DID YOU REALIZE FROM THE DROP OF THE GREEN THAT YOUR CAR WAS THAT GOOD OR DID IT TAKE YOU A WHILE TO FIGURE IT OUT? “I had a pretty good feeling because the car was so bad off balance wise the first run and we were still pretty fast. If we get this thing right, it’s gonna be a rocketship. And sure enough, they made the right adjustment and it was fast. I can guarantee if PK and I went to the USS Enterprise this week, flew out and land on an aircraft carrier, and they have lots of things in the military that are faster than this car, I can guarantee it. But this car was really good.”

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE BET THAT YOU HAVE GOING ON WITH YOUR CREW GUY TOM? “Yea, Tom Jockey made a bet that he wouldn’t shave [his beard] until we won a NEXTEL Cup Series race and we’ve won a bunch of Busch races. That beard is getting kind of long. He’s ready to shave it off. We have a great car tomorrow and the last two races we had a car that was capable of winning, so hopefully Tom will shave tomorrow.”

YOU’VE BEEN ABLE TO WIN ON THE BUSCH SERIES, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT HAVEN’T YOU BEEN ABLE TO WIN ON THE CUP SIDE? “There are a number of reasons. The NEXTEL Cup Series is arguably; I think, it is the most competitive racing series in the world. And at the end of 2005, we were upset if we didn’t sit on the pole and lead every lap in the race. In the Chase, we were awesome. Then I feel that we just got a little behind. I think that we got behind a little bit on engineering and understanding parts of the car and processes and stuff that were making other teams go fast, but the good news on that is that we understand where we were behind and we are working on it. At Darlington, we had a car that could win. At the Coke 600, we had a car that could win and we’ve got a car that can win tomorrow. And if you keep having cars that will win; you’ll win races. The reason we haven’t won, it’s just a little bit of luck and other teams kind of getting ahead of us a bit and we’re on the uphill side of that. We’re getting better.”

HAVE YOU HAD A CAR THIS GOOD ANYWHERE? “The National Car was pretty good, but I think this one was better. I was thinking about that out there. I was thinking, relative to the field, that this is probably the best car I ever had. Trying to think of a better one – that’s about as good as it gets. I don’t think I’ve had a better one. I’ve had some that were pretty good, but this one was awesome.”

ARE YOU LESS LIKELY TO TRY CHANGES WHEN YOU’VE GOT A CAR LIKE THIS? “Yea, it’s tough because all of us, everybody out there, is used to making changes every time we come in. We’re sitting out there going to pit, get four tires and fuel and PK says ‘no changes’ so, I guess no changes. It makes you real hesitant to make changes unless someone out there gets faster than you. That thing was just so good.”

PIERRE KUETTEL – (CONTINUED) ON THAT LAST PIT STOP, CARL SAID THAT YOU DIDN’T WANT A ROUND WEDGE, THAT HE JUST WANTED A BUMP. DO YOU KNOW THAT IS? AND HOW MUCH IS THAT, ACTUALLY? “Yes, a very little bit. The great thing working with Carl the last couple of years is that there is a certain amount of terminology that goes on and we begin to read each other. A bump is basically where we stick a wrench right in there and pull it out. I don’t think it was very much; we bumped it and I think we gave him what he needed. I think we were just a tick tight and the end, maybe could have used a bump and a half, maybe two bumps, but it was all right.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Arby’s Ford Fusion – A FIFTH PLACE FINISH IS GOOD FOR YOU TODAY. “Yea, we ran a lot better today than we ran yesterday, for sure. The crew and guys did a great job on the car. We had more cords than rubber there at the end and couldn’t hold on for any better position. But fifth finish is a good finish to how today and yesterday went.” ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THERE WAS MUCH RUBBER LAID OUT ON THE RACE TRACK FROM THE TRUCK RACE AND THE BUSCH RACE AND QUALIFYING AND PRACTICE. IT LOOKS LIKE THERE IS NOT AS MUCH RUBBER ON THE RACE TRACK AS YOU ARE USED TO. “I don’t know. I don’t get the whole tire thing. There must not be much on the tires, because mine don’t have any on them, they’re all cords. All I know is that all my tires’ rubber is out there, but I don’t know. It’s not all packed in for some reason. The track is in great shape.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion – “Today we really had a great run. I’m so proud of my guys. We put the Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion back on the map in this series. We’ve had a tough eight weeks and it’s great to bounce back. We made some small structural changes to give the team more responsibility when we get here to the track and it’s paying off. We all have a great bit of confidence running. I’m really proud of my guys because they gave me a great package. We wore it all out; the right front tire, the cord is showing. We probably could have run another five laps, but we didn’t need to.” DOES THIS GIVE YOU AND THE TEAM MORE CONFIDENCE IN THE SERIES? “It feels like I’ve arrived. Here I am, running at Dover, one of the toughest tracks, running the in Busch series racing against the best of the best and it’s all right. That’s all I can ask for. If I had another couple years of experience, we would have been in contention to win. At top-10 was as good as a win for us.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU SEE? WHAT HAPPENED? “I put ourselves in a bad position by speeding on pit road and we had a lot better car than where we were running at. I was just being aggressive trying to pick-up a few spots on the race track. I didn’t realize – they were wrecking in front of me and I thought they were checking out, so I’d pick up some spots and I was just being too aggressive.”

STEPHEN LEICHT – No. 90 citifinancial Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED? “Well, I really don’t know. We just got the restart and the lap cars were next to us. The 66 and 7 car got together, then the 7 started to spin out all the way down the frontstretch. Then from what I can tell is that everyone slowed down and out of nowhere somebody came in there wide open and got into everybody. I don’t know what that is all about. I feel bad because the citifinacial team has done a great job this weekend. The car was fast; we struggled a little bit in the early part of the race and in the last run we were up to like 13th and the car was feeling good. We were just sitting there riding along and waiting until the end; it’s a shame we had to go out like that.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 25 FreeCreditReport.com Ford Fusion – “Some cars got together in front of us coming off of turn four. I thought I had them cleared. I barely touched him with a little bit my left front fender and I went to go by and someone hit me from the back and we got turned around. I know the 18 car was in front of me, but I’m not sure who was behind and hit me. It’s hard to see what’s going on behind you plus watch a wreck unfold in front of you. It’s a shame for the us to end today this way.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 47 Clorox Ford Fusion – “We had a good day. It was a fast race car. We were a little off in the beginning so we made some adjustments and got it to where it was pretty good. I’m pretty happy with it and the lap times. We had radio problems; I could hear them, they couldn’t hear me. We lost a lap on pit road because we were trying to fix the radio. That’s kind of the end of the day there because then we got a lap down, I didn’t even know we were a lap down because we weren’t able to communicate that well. I’m glad I had the opportunity but we didn’t have it all together. If we didn’t have radio problems, we could have stayed up there in the top-15 and had a solid run.” HOW DO YOU LIKE BEING IN TWO RACES THIS WEEKEND? “We need to do it more often. It was pretty good. We’ve been taking a little bit from each series and learning from both of them. I’m lucky to have run in a great car for a great team. I hope to be able to do it again soon.”